Jimmy Carter

Tuesday

Mar 14, 2017 at 3:17 PMMar 16, 2017 at 3:08 PM

Background/Early Life• Jimmy Carter grew up on a peanut farm in Plains, Georgia. He studied at the United States Naval Academy and after graduating worked in the submarine service, where the Navy was building its first nuclear-powered submarines. Carter was responsible for teaching nuclear engineering.• After Carter’s father died he returned home to work on the peanut farm and became involved in the community. He served on the county board of education, then won a Georgia State Senate seat. He worked to resist strong segregationist sentiment in the area, and this reputation hurt him in his first bid for governor of Georgia. In the next election, in 1970, he was able to win and immediately set to ending segregation in Georgia.• Carter took a couple of steps toward national exposure before running for president in the 1976 election, including becoming the campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee. But in fact it was his Washington outsider status that helped him win in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.How he defined the office• Carter campaigned on a platform of honesty and worked to maintain his moral character throughout his presidency. His distaste for the kinds of deals Congress negotiated in exchange for favors led to a rocky relationship, and despite his ability to work with Congress he was never a very popular president while he was in office.• Carter’s administration saw an increase in tensions with the Soviet Union, including an American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.Successes and failures• Carter’s experience with nuclear energy was part of his success around America’s energy policies while he was in office. Although fuel prices increased and there were notoriously long lines at gas stations in 1979 due to international incidents, America’s dependence on foreign energy sources decreased during Carter’s term.• President Carter’s time in office is mainly remembered for two foreign policy events, one of which was a success and the other a main reason why he lost his bid for re-election: In 1978 Carter negotiated the Camp David Accords, named for the presidential retreat where Carter met with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Carter helped negotiate a peace treaty that resulted in Begin and Sadat winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. As much as the Camp David Accords were a highlight of his administration, the Iran Hostage Crisis was the exact opposite. Sixty-six Americans were held at the American embassy in Teheran, Iran, in retaliation for Carter allowing the exiled Shah to come to the United States for refuge and medical treatment. A failed rescue attempt preceded a deal for the release of the hostages at the end of Carter’s term.